How can we make housing more equitable?

The housing system isn't broken, it's working exactly as designed… just not for renters. Government policy has consistently prioritised housing as an investment asset, spending more to support landlords than tenants. The result is a wealth gap that tracks almost perfectly along generational lines.

Laurence Troy and Sophia Maalsen study what this means for cities and communities: a growing generation of forever renters, and digital platforms now extracting data from tenants just to access a home. So how did we get here and what could a fairer system actually look like?

Bios

Laurence Troy

Laurence Troy is an Associate Professor and Head of Urbanism at the University of Sydney's School of Architecture, Design and Planning. His research focuses on housing systems and policy, and the relationship between where you live, how securely you work, and how much say you have in the cities being built around you. He is one of Australia's most clear-eyed voices on what housing policy is actually doing to people.

Sophia Maalsen

Sophia Maalsen is an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture, Design and Planning at the University of Sydney, where she researches how technology is reshaping housing, cities, and governance. Her current work looks at how digital platforms are being applied to housing affordability, and what renters give up in the process. She thinks a lot about data sovereignty, feminist urbanism, and whether the so-called smart city is working for the people who actually live in it.

Event

Thursday 7 May, 6:30 – 7:15 PM @Mountain Culture Beer Co, 158 Regent St, Redfern NSW 2016

The other talk at this location is What stress does to the brain at 8:00 – 8:45 PM